Pete Domenici and Other Politicians With Love Children

Politicians With Love Children

Former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici revealed he fathered a son in an extramarital affair with another senator's daughter over 30 years ago and he has kept the secret hidden since then, only telling his own family the last "several months."

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Politicians With Love Children

Former New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici revealed he fathered a son in an extramarital affair with another senator's daughter over 30 years ago and he has kept the secret hidden since then, only telling his own family the last "several months."

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Politicians With Love Children

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a love child with their family's housekeeper, identified as Mildred Patricia Baena. The news of Schwarzenegger's affair did not become public until after he left office.

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Politicians With Love Children

Before establishing a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730, Benjamin Franklin fathered an illegitimate son named William. He and his wife raised him in their household.

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Politicians With Love Children

Long before he was a senator, South Carolina's Strom Thurmond fathered a child with a 16 year-old black maid. Knowledge of his daughter, Essie Washington-Williams, was kept under wraps until after his death at the age of 100 in 2003.

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Politicians With Love Children

The former senator and presidential hopeful, John Edwards admitted to having an affair with a former campaign worker Rielle Hunter, 42, who later give birth to his daughter Frances Quinn. In 2012 after a mistrial, prosecutors dropped charges against Edwards stemming from his attempts to cover the affair up during the 2008 presidential campaign.

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Politicians With Love Children

Rev. Jesse Jackson admitted to having an extramarital affair that resulted in a daughter. He was likely having the affair with Karin Stanford, a 39-year-old worker at his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition office in Washington, even as he counseled President Clinton after public revelations of an affair with Monica Lewinsky, an intern at the White House.

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Politicians With Love Children

The Buffalo Evening Telegraph reported that in 1874, Maria Halpin gave birth to Grover Cleveland's illegitimate child, Oscar Folsom Cleveland. Cleveland, who went on to be sworn in as U.S. President in 1885 and 1893, was also accused of arranging Halpin's commitment to an insane asylum and the child's placement in an orphanage.

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Politicians With Love Children

DNA tests have provided compelling evidence surrounding the speculation that Thomas Jefferson sired at least one child with his slave, Sally Hemings.

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Politicians With Love Children

Former New York Rep. Vito Fossella acknowledged in 2008 that he fathered a child from an extramarital affair with Laura Fay three years earlier. A 2008 arrest for drunk driving led to the unraveling of his double life.